Which Will Be Easier: Competing for a Title

[Handlogten's Heros]

I get what you're saying, but you're also wrong and being dramatic. The amount of assets the Jazz have its impossible to just be another team. Especially since there hasn't been a call to spend a great deal of assets to make these trades.

lol me over here with my slow, measured build is the one being dramatic… not the guy wanting to yolo our picks now to try and compete for a title cuz the bogeyman is coming to win 10 straight titles.

 

[KqWIN]

I think now is a pretty good time to compete for a championship. If you had two star players in your prime locked under contract, what a time to compete. But the reality is that we are far from that. It doesn't really matter what's going on with Wemby, the Jazz are not positioned to win in the next three years, so the question is irrelevant unless we're trying to dig up a "should we have traded Rudy/Don" type of conversation.

Even without considering our current team, you can't really time these things and you don't judge the best time to win based on another player. LeBron is the greatest of all time and won the East year after year. It was still favorable to be in the East than the stacked West. All you can really do is build a team that his good and is good for a long time. That gives you a chance to get lucky.

 

[The Midnight]

Like right now the projected starting lineup, if we are to believe Tony Jones, is going to be

Sexton
Keyonte
Williams or Hendricks
Lauri
Kessler

That starting 5 is going to win a decent amount of games and believe in each other.

In the past the Jazz were able to trade a starter to demoralize the team. They can't do that with that team (unless they trade Sexton).

That team isn’t gonna win more than 35 games.

Sit Lauri the final 30 games and win total goes down to 22.

 

[HermanG]

I think the vote is skewed towards the latter stretch because people interpret the question as "When should the Jazz aim to compete?".

However that wasnt the question.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

lol me over here with my slow, measured build is the one being dramatic… not the guy wanting to yolo our picks now to try and compete for a title cuz the bogeyman is coming to win 10 straight titles.

Reading is hard huh?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I think the vote is skewed towards the latter stretch because people interpret the question as "When should the Jazz aim to compete?".

However that wasnt the question.

Because they are scared if they answer the question they will have to deal with the fact that tanking isn't the comfort blanket they think it is

People love tanking because it's hard to fail at it. You get hope and hope that doesn't have to be tested for a while

 

[SoberasHotRod]

No but don't go out of your way to acquire more guys of that ilk right now until you get the blue chip prospect. Then go get those guys. Trying to short cut the process at this point has an upside of the Kings imo. Lauri + Blue Chip Prospect + Developing Rookies + BI/Sexton level guys that you can acquire - thats the formula I'd be working on. The order is important though.

I'm not sure the order is so important. I agree that what you said makes sense, but it's not the only way to do it. I also think you can spend a whole lot of years chasing your number one option guy and never really get anywhere. It's also possible to put together a really good team and attract that number one guy to your team or have more pieces to trade for the number one guy or the number one guy emerges from your really good players.

The idea of getting Ingram is that maybe there is some synergy with Lauri which is worth exploring and if the cost is low enough, then that might be worth the risk.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

If we dont trade for him, I hope the Jazz are a team who is on the market for him in free agency.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

If we dont trade for him, I hope the Jazz are a team who is on the market for him in free agency.

If we R&E Lauri, I don't think we have any expiring contracts next year. I don't think we'll have a max cap space available.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

If we R&E Lauri, I don't think we have any expiring contracts next year. I don't think we'll have a max cap space available.

fingers crossed we find a Collins salary dump for an expiring.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I'm not sure the order is so important. I agree that what you said makes sense, but it's not the only way to do it. I also think you can spend a whole lot of years chasing your number one option guy and never really get anywhere. It's also possible to put together a really good team and attract that number one guy to your team or have more pieces to trade for the number one guy or the number one guy emerges from your really good players.

The idea of getting Ingram is that maybe there is some synergy with Lauri which is worth exploring and if the cost is low enough, then that might be worth the risk.

I think the order is fairly critical especially for us. Basically get the guy in the next two years or you should move on from Lauri. It’s also critical we don’t push win now stuff right now as this draft is loaded up top AND we lose our pick outright if we are not bottom 10.

This idea that building a pie in the sky top 6 team is just flat out silly imo. It’s much more likely to end in the worst possible way with us landing as a low end play in and sending the pick. Then we pivot? Each year the anxiety in the fan base grows and deciding to tear it down next year would be met with so much “we told you so” from the fans.

We just gotta take our medicine this next year and see where we end up. Buying opportunities will still be there next year.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

fingers crossed we find a Collins salary dump for an expiring.

Being able to flip a switch next year and build a team to compete is much more of a hope than a sure thing. I know I'm a little bit of a broken record on this subject, but we'll have just as much of incentive to be bad for the 2026 draft as we do now and we could actually have less options than we do now to add talent.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Being able to flip a switch next year and build a team to compete is much more of a hope than a sure thing. I know I'm a little bit of a broken record on this subject, but we'll have just as much of incentive to be bad for the 2026 draft as we do now and we could actually have less options than we do now to add talent.

Yup yup. Which is why, if the price is just Collins/Walker/Sensabaugh, you do it for Ingram. You get off a mediocre contract and you upgrade your talent.

And starting to think Boozer has a chance to be better than Flagg.

 

[The Midnight]

I think the vote is skewed towards the latter stretch because people interpret the question as "When should the Jazz aim to compete?".

However that wasnt the question.

Then this poll has no business being in the Jazz section and should be in General Sport.

 

[TheStormofWar]

Neither. I'm beginning to think the current regime in Utah doesn't have the nous to construct a Championship roster, previous history not withstanding. Rebuilding while competing simply does not work with a team and market like Utah due to FA acquisition issues.

 

[The Midnight]

Neither. I'm beginning to think the current regime in Utah doesn't have the nous to construct a Championship roster, previous history not withstanding. Rebuilding while competing simply does not work with a team and market like Utah due to FA acquisition issues.

He’s not asking about the Jazz, he mistakenly put this in the Jazz forum.

 

[TheStormofWar]

He’s not asking about the Jazz, he mistakenly put this in the Jazz forum.

Fair enough. Doesn't change my feelings though.

 

[The Midnight]

Mods, please put this in General Sport, Cy made a mistake.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Mods, please put this in General Sport, Cy made a mistake.

Mods please ban Midnight for backseat moderating.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

I think the order is fairly critical especially for us. Basically get the guy in the next two years or you should move on from Lauri. It’s also critical we don’t push win now stuff right now as this draft is loaded up top AND we lose our pick outright if we are not bottom 10.

This idea that building a pie in the sky top 6 team is just flat out silly imo. It’s much more likely to end in the worst possible way with us landing as a low end play in and sending the pick. Then we pivot? Each year the anxiety in the fan base grows and deciding to tear it down next year would be met with so much “we told you so” from the fans.

We just gotta take our medicine this next year and see where we end up. Buying opportunities will still be there next year.

I promise I see the merits of what you are proposing, and in fact have been a proponent of it. I just don't think it's the only way, and comes with a lot of risks as well. Specifically we'll have the same risks, if not more risks trying to be good for the 2026 season as we have for the 2025 season. I don't think we can go in to the 2025 season with the idea that we've just drafted this stud and we are going to automatically be able to put a good team around him. First of all, he might not actually be a stud and likely needs a couple of seasons to be good even if he is. Secondly, there is a chance the 2026 draft is even better than 2025 and we have lower protections on the pick that year, so we could end up giving OKC an even better pick than trying to be good this year.

As far as the fan base goes they are going to be upset if we aren't winning either way.